The above mentioned patent applications disclose several methods and apparatuses for enabling individual or smaller investors to create and invest in diversified investment portfolios from the first investment in a cost-effective manner.
As investors begin viewing their investment portfolios as a single entity, with specific characteristics and performances, they will be more interested in the actual portfolio characteristics rather than the characteristics of the underlying investments. Typically, to modify the portfolio characteristics by modifying the underlying investments may cause tax consequences and other undesirable effects.
The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a method and apparatus for enabling investors to readily modify the investment characteristics of their investment portfolio without changing the actual investments in the portfolio.